Description

This is an observational pre-post intervention feasibility study. In addition to the objective finding that adults with hearing loss experience higher rates of cognitive decline, they also tend to report lesser degrees of physical activity and increased cognitive fatigue, which is the feeling of tiredness or having a lack of energy. Unfortunately, the mechanism by which hearing loss relates to physical activity and fatigue, and the effect of hearing aids as an intervention to improve these factors, is unclear. Thus, the purpose of this study is twofold: First, we will establish the feasibility of administering a best practices hearing aid intervention to a sample of adults from the target age range of 55 - 75 years old to inform the larger clinical trial; Second, we will collect pilot data to explore the relationships between hearing loss, physical activity, socialization, fatigue and hearing-related outcomes before and after hearing aid intervention.

There are no experimental or investigational devices or agents used in this study. We are providing best-practices standard of care hearing intervention including hearing aids. We are additionally tracking activity using the ActiGraph wGT3X-BT, an FDA-approved Class II medical device that tracks continuous, high resolution physical activity and sleep/wake information.

Participation involves a minimum of 6 in-office study visits. Intervention sessions occur approximately 2 weeks apart, with a final long-term outcome session occurring approximately 6-months post the baseline intervention session.

Significant others of participants are invited to join the study and contribute data related to their own quality of life and their observations of the effects of the hearing intervention on the participant.